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7 Ways CRM can Enhance Customer Experience at Call Centers

Today’s business scenario is a tough one. The term ‘Customer is King’ has attained a whole new dimension now, when, with the click of a button, they can share their experience on the web, with peers or on social media websites. This 24/7 connectivity coupled with customer awareness brings a double-edged sword for businesses. 'Customer experience' or 'Cx' is critical. In such a situation, two scenarios can be possible:

Scenario 1: positive Cx
With a consistently good experience through your call center and other channels, a customer may recommend your business to their peers and become a great brand ambassador. Their loyalty towards your organization may also be cemented, resulting in continuing business with you. This hence becomes a win-win situation, wherein you can not only retain the customer, but may even get additional business through their recommendations.Scenario 2: negative CxThis is a scary situation to be in. If it so happens that your customer’s experience is less than satisfactory, customers may call the support center to register a complaint. In case their complaint is not resolved satisfactorily or there is a considerable delay in the turnaround time, your business faces the risk of losing the customer. In such a scenario, earning the trust and loyalty of customers may have taken you years, but, losing it may take less than a day. In addition, your brand may take a severe beating when the customer vents their frustration or anger among peers or their entire social network. Your reputation may be tarnished seriously in this case leading to large churn rates.

CRM to the rescue!
For obvious reasons, all businesses wish that they are always in Scenario 1. But, you have to admit, Scenario 2 always remains a possibility. To eliminate this risk, it is necessary to reinforce your customer service employees and call center with the optimum technology that enables them to deal with customers in a satisfactory way. Call centers are known to be at the hub of customer service and work with multiple departments to exchange two-way information between customers and their organization.

The call center employees may not be responsible for poor customer experience in entirety..Maybe, the volume of calls was so high that many customers ended up holding for a long time or being unattended entirely. Maybe the call center employee took time to find the details of the customer due to multiple software being deployed on his terminal or the application was not user friendly. Whatever be the reason, the result is one: a dissatisfied customer. It may take no more than two or three similar experiences to make the customer go to your competitor. What the employee needs is a system that removes the roadblocks or hurdles and enhances their abilities and skills. What can be the solutions to all these issues? The answer is simple: an effective CRM for customer service. A strong Cloud CRM software for your call center not only eases the path for call center employees, but also ensures a consistent customer experience.

Computer Telephony Integration (CTI): This facility enables the interactions with customers on a telephone and a computer to be integrated or coordinated, allowing call centre employees to efficiently manage and pull up customer information. Employees are able to see relevant details about callers as soon as the call is received, and can enter information about the call into the system with ease.

360 degree view of the customer: Past interactions and preferences are made available through activity manageent and rolled up objects' records to the customer service representatives. Many times, this information allows the employees to effectively deal with a customer in such a way that they have an excellent experience and their issues are resolved within SLAs.

Auto/ manual escalations: A major issue faced by the customer may sometimes be out of bounds for the customer service representative attending to him. In such cases, a good CRM solution in the call center allows the employee to escalate the issue to the next level.

Solutions database: A lot of automation features within the Cloud CRM softwares also allow call center representatives to automate many of the functions, due to which they can work at a faster pace and solve the query of the customer instantly. For example, pre-approved solutions can be displayed based on a Case's Type and Category, the most appropriate one can be selected by a user for a particular case.

Cross-channel functionalities: CRM for customer services and social CRM allow customers to contact the call center through phone, web (including social networks) or email. This flexibility provides the customer more convenient/ practical choices and enhances their experience.

Secure customer records: A unified solution allows call center representatives in different roles a specific set of CRM operations, allowing different people rights to open, close and update records related to customers on the basis of their assigned roles. This activity ensures that customer records remain secure at all times through read/ write configurations.

Inter-departmental collaborations: In addition to call center employees who are involved in customer service, sales and marketing teams can also utilize customer data from the CRM system to pursue relevant leads and execute relevant marketing campaigns. Other departments within the organization can also utilize the common CRM solution to maintain effective communication with customers and improve products by analyzing customer feedback.

CRM software solution for call centers can be more than just a business tool to manage customer information, they can empower your employees to cost-effectively retain and satisfy existing customers. The effect of this positive customer experience will reflect in the following:

Repeat purchases

Referrals

Word-of-mouth advocacy

Feedback for improvements

Better cross-selling opportunities

Positive employee morale

In the long run, your brand will become stronger and better through consistent customer experience optimization, regardless of which channel a customer chooses to share their request, opinion or issue with your teams.